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Perchloroethylene is not just another detergent
 All Americans deserve to breathe clean air. Unfortunately, due to EPA's inaction, people across the United States are being exposed to harmful pollutants, such as perchloroethylene. Perchloroehylene, also known as perc or PCE, is a highly toxic chemical emitted from dry cleaners throughout the country. Despite evidence of its serious adverse health effects, the EPA has allowed tens of thousands of dry cleaners across the country to continue using perc.
While the EPA is doing little to encourage green cleaning, there is a movement toward non-perc alternatives. Perc is already being phased out in California and many family-owned dry cleaners have made the switch to cleaner, safer technologies, such as wet cleaning and carbon dioxide. The switch can be accomplished at little or no cost, by requiring cleaners to switch to non-perc cleaning machines as their old systems wear out. Non-perc alternatives offer the same cleaning quality with none of the toxic threats of perc.
EPA's failure to take an obvious and cost-effective step to protect millions of at risk Americans against a known toxin reflects a widespread breakdown in the agency's air toxics program. In July, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a scathing indictment of EPA's failure to follow the Clean Air Act, chastising the agency for ignoring the direction of Congress to reduce and eventually eliminate some of the most dangerous chemicals to human health. One month later, in August, a federal court found EPA's air toxics efforts "grossly delinquent."
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